William Tyrell’s foster father cleared of lying to Crime Commission

The foster father of missing boy William Tyrrell has been cleared of allegations he lied to a Crime Commission hearing.

Transcript

00:00 William's foster father was fighting five counts of knowingly giving false or misleading

00:06 evidence at a Crime Commission hearing in 2021, where he and William's foster mother

00:11 were questioned over the toddler's disappearance from the Mid North Coast in 2014.

00:16 He had pleaded not guilty to all five charges of lying to the Crime Commission when he denied

00:22 having any knowledge that his wife had hit and kicked another child in their care who

00:27 is not William.

00:28 The foster mother was also charged with lying during that hearing and she was also found

00:32 not guilty last year.

00:34 Magistrate John Arms today dismissed all five charges against the foster father, saying

00:39 the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to deceive

00:44 the Crime Commission.

00:46 He told the court in three of the counts the questions asked were too ambiguous, while

00:50 on the other two counts he was not convinced the foster father had intended to lie.

00:55 The prosecution had earlier played covert recordings to the court which they argued

00:59 proved the foster father knew about the alleged assaults before the Crime Commission hearings,

01:04 but the magistrate decided he wasn't convinced that the foster father had deliberately lied.

01:10 The court also heard this week the foster father has been cleared by police of any involvement

01:14 in William's disappearance, but the foster mother has not.

01:18 The police theory is that William died in an accidental fall from the balcony in September

01:23 2014 and the foster mother covered it up by disposing of his body.

01:28 She has denied any involvement in his disappearance and the DPP is expected to decide by early

01:34 next year if there is enough evidence to lay any charges.

01:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]